Author: Andres-Papazian

The Arlington Advocate, MA
Oct 20 2013

New cafe in Belmont will offer Mediterranean-inspired cuisine

By Joanna Tzouvelis

Belmont, Mass. –
WHAT Seta’s Café
WHERE 271 Belmont St., Belmont
OWNER Seta Dakessian of Watertown
MENU OPTIONS Take out, dine in or catering
HOURS Tuesday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, 8 a.m. to
6 p.m., Closed Sunday and Monday.
SEATS 20

Lovers of ethnic food have a new place to dine in Belmont. Seta’s
Café, 271 Belmont St., officially opeeds Oct. 18. Owner Seta
Dakessian, 39, comes from a long line of bakers. Her parents, Mary and
Kevork, owned a pizza shop, bakery and café in Worcester for 20 years
offering Armenian food, breads and pastries. Her paternal grandfather
was also one of two bakers in the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem, where
they baked pita bread and served as the communal bakery for the
families living in the quarter. Her maternal grandfather would sell
paklava as a street vendor in Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon. Her grandmother
rolled the phyllo dough with a dowl and made the paklava.

Dakessian, who received her culinary arts degree from Johnson and
Wales University and has been a vendor at farmers markets the past
four years, plans to use locally sourced ingredients when possible for
the menu items baked from scratch in house. She plans to offer
seasonal dishes, which will change often, as well as a daily menu
including a selection of soups, stews, specialty sandwiches and
salads. On Saturdays, a brunch menu will offer several options such as
eggs and Lebny, grilled halloumi cheese and olives. It will be served
with homemade lavash bread and a plate of tomato, cucumber and mint.
“It’s the way my parents would serve Sunday breakfast in our home,”
said Dakessian.

Dakessian hopes her new café will become the neighborhood place to go
as well as a destination for people to come and have a bite to eat or
take a meal home for their family.She was recently interviewed by the
Belmont Citizen-Herald about her new business venture.

What inspired you to go into your line of work?

I grew up in the restaurant world. My earliest memory of cooking was
when I was 5 years old. My father used to take me to the pizza shop
before taking me to school to make the dough for pita bread. I watched
him make the dough and then he would give me a piece and say, ” Now
this is perfect. This is what the dough should feel like.” He created
dough based on instinct and the feel of the dough. There was no
science, which goes against every rule of baking bread, but he didn’t
know that. When I was 10, my parents opened the cafe. Our menu was
designed on dishes my mother would cook for us at home. When I
graduated high school, I vowed I would never own a restaurant. You’re
work never ends, it’s stressful, there’s little money to be made and
at times it’s very challenging, but I soon realized that there wasn’t
anything else I wanted to do. The food system in this country is out
of whack. There’s so much crap out there, so much processed food that
people have forgotten what it was like to go somewhere and get a good,
home-cooked meal. Nothing fancy, just a simple meal made with good
ingredients. With that being said, I am a small part of this change.
More and more small food purveyors are popping up and going back to
the way it used to be when we sourced locally and cooked seasonally.

Who has had the greatest influence on your career path?

There are several people who have influenced me: My parents who taught
me how to cook and bake at an early age, my godfather who always
challenges me and gets me to think outside the box, my friends, some
amateurs, some professional who I can bounce ideas off and my
customers, who are honest and tell me what works and what doesn’t.

What do you love most about what you do?

I love making food that makes people happy. The greatest compliment I
get is when a guest says ” I haven’t had this dish in years. It’s just
like the way my grandmother/mother/aunt used to make it. I haven’t had
it in years.” It brings that person back to a happy time in his or her
life, perhaps when the whole family would get together for Sunday
supper or the one or two holidays when everyone would get together. I
hope that in years to come, people remember their time at the cafe and
the meal they shared with their friends and family.

From: A. Papazian

REVUE DE PRESSE
Le collège arménien va voir le jour gäce à lui

Le Parisien, France

Lundi 7 Octobre 2013

Le collège arménien va voir le jour grce à lui

A.-L.A.

Sans lui, le projet de collège arménien à Alfortville n’aurait
peut-être pas vu le jour. Kevork Arabian, le principal bienfaiteur du
futur équipement, qui portera d’ailleurs son nom en remerciement, a
assisté samedi à la bénédiction des fondations de ce btiment conçu
pour accueillir 300 élèves de la primaire au collège. Cet homme
d’affaire de 82 ans, d’origine arménienne, a fait fortune dans
l’entreprise familiale d’emballage industriel créée au Liban. Il n’a
pas hésité une seconde lorsque Garbis Tcherpachian, un ami de son
frère disparu, lui a demandé de l’aide.

« Gagner de l’argent c’est difficile, mais c’est encore plus difficile
de le dépenser justement, explique-t-il, avec l’aide d’un traducteur.
Je suis heureux qu’on me donne la possibilité de créer une école car
tous ces enfants sont des descendants des victimes du génocide et ils
vont pouvoir apprendre la langue de leurs aïeux. C’est primordial car
c’est une preuve que notre peuple existe encore. »

D’avril 1915 à juillet 1916, les deux tiers des Arméniens qui vivaient
sur le territoire actuel de la Turquie ont été exterminés au cours des
déportations et massacres de grande ampleur. La famille de Kevork
Arabian a échappé à ce drame en se réfugiant au Liban en 1923.

Le benjamin de la fratrie naît à Beyrouth en 1932. Une vie douce
permise par la coexistence de dix-huit communautés différentes,
jusqu’à ce que la guerre du Liban ne le pousse à trouver refuge cette
fois-ci en France en 1987. Il y restera vingt ans en s’installant
notamment à Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine), aidé au départ par Garbis
Tcherpachian. Des liens forts qui expliquent le soutien du mécène, qui
n’en est pas à sa première contribution.

Il finance plus de la moitié des 4,5 M(EURO) nécessaires Il a ainsi
déjà offert différentes fournitures à plusieurs écoles au Liban, mais
il souhaitait un projet d’envergure. Le collège alfortvillais,
troisième établissement du genre en France, avec ses 4,5 M(EURO), lui
donne l’occasion d’aider encore plus. Il finance en effet plus de la
moitié de l’enveloppe nécessaire. « Je veux que les enfants soient des
citoyens exemplaires, qu’ils s’intègrent tout en maîtrisant la double
culture », insiste-t-il

dimanche 20 octobre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
Le chef de la police arménienne affirme qu’Erevan est prête à coopérer
avec Bakou dans la répression du trafic de drogue

L’Arménie est prête à coopérer avec l’Azerbaïdjan dans la répression
du trafic de drogue a annoncé le chef de la police arménienne Vladimir
Gasparian en résumant les résultats de l’opération anti-drogue locale
appelée Canal-Caucase. Le bureau de coordination de cette opération
est situé à Erevan.

« L’Arménie n’a pas de sujets intouchables » a-t-il dit. « La
criminalité n’a pas de nationalité ».

Nikolay Bordyuzha, Secrétaire général de l’Organisation du Traité de
sécurité collective, a déclaré de son côté que dans la campagne
anti-drogue Canal est en cours d’exécution sous les auspices de
l’organisation et qui y participent non seulement les pays membres de
l’OTSC, mais aussi 22 états.

« Les officiers de police arménienne et azerbaïdjanaise coopèrent
normalement les uns avec les autres au sein de cette opération »
a-t-il dit.

dimanche 20 octobre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

Bako Sahakyan met the representatives of Armenian Community of Netherlands

Today – 11:03

On 17 October Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan held a meeting
with the leadership of the Armenian community of the Netherlands held
in The Hague. Central Information Department of the Office of Artsakh
Republic President informs about this.

Issues related to strengthening ties between the Dutch Armenian
community and Artsakh were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the Armenian community of
Netherlands for their assistance to Artsakh noting that he expected
active participation of our compatriots in the 2013 `Hayastan’
All-Armenian Fund’s Telethon and in other programs to be implemented
in Artsakh.

NKR foreign minister Karen Mirzoyan, ambassador extraordinary and
plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Netherlands Dzyunik
Aghajanyan and other officials partook at the meeting.

From: A. Papazian

Interfax, Russia
Oct 18 2013

OSCE asks Baku, Yerevan to probe causes of Karabakh monitoring pause

YEREVAN. Oct 18

The cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group assisting in the Karabakh
conflict settlement and the personal representative of the OSCE
chairman-in-office have urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to look into the
Thursday incident that forced the OSCE monitors to suspend their
observation mission in the conflict zone.

“Following the usual exchange of security guarantees by local
commanders on both sides of the Line of Contact, members of both OSCE
teams heard shooting as they approached their observation points. It
was not possible to determine from where the shots were fired. Safety
and security concerns prompted the Personal Representative to abandon
the exercise,” runs the joint statement by the OSCE Minsk Group
cochairmen and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office,
Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

“They believe that this exceptional and regrettable incident
undermines the work of these individuals, and of the Personal
Representative and his team, as well as the ceasefire agreement of May
1994. The Co-Chairs urge the relevant authorities to investigate it
thoroughly and impartially,” the statement said.

The OSCE monitoring mission along the contact line between the Azeri
and Armenian forces in the Karabakh conflict zone was cancelled on
October 17.

The Azeri Defense Ministry said that Armenia had breached the
ceasefire regime shortly before the monitoring began.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized Karabakh Republic
said the monitoring was suspended because of automatic gunfire coming
from Azeri positions.

The ceasefire regime between Azerbaijan and Armenia was put in place
in May 1994. The OSCE, assisted by the personal representative of its
chairman-in-office, regularly carries out monitoring missions along
the frontline in order to collect information about the sides’
compliance with the ceasefire regime.

Te cm

From: A. Papazian

The Associated Press
October 18, 2013 Friday 06:10 AM GMT

Russia media tycoons expand with Kremlin’s help

By LAURA MILLS, Associated Press
MOSCOW

The skinny man in a baggy, wrinkled shirt carting groceries back to
his car could have been any Silicon Valley programmer, were it not for
the Russian license plate on the car behind him.

The grainy photograph is the first to show NSA leaker Edward Snowden
in his new life in Russia after leaving the Moscow airport.

The force behind the scoop? A father-and-son team who like to see
themselves as Russia’s Murdochs.

With a well-oiled system of paying for scoops, the Gabrelyanovs have
been able to crawl into every crevice of Russian life from show
business to the security services. Their website Lifenews, which
published the photo confirmed authentic by Snowden’s lawyer, is part
of an expanding empire that has come to dominate Russia’s media
landscape in the decades since the elder Gabrelyanov started off as a
provincial tabloid publisher.

A key reason for their recent success: obsequious loyalty to the
Kremlin. The father, Aram Gabrelyanov, refers to President Vladimir
Putin as the “father of the nation” a fealty that was rewarded when
one of Putin’s oldest friends spent $80 million to become a key
shareholder in the Gabrelyanovs’ holding company, News Media,
providing it with a flood of cash for investment.

Its purchasing power and carefully cultivated contacts are what
brought Lifenews its first Snowden exclusive: a picture of the systems
analyst leaving the airport after Russia granted him asylum on Aug. 1.
That was followed on Oct. 7 by the image of Snowden carrying groceries
in Moscow. With its savvy for scoops, the company often works as a de
facto arm of Kremlin power humiliating Putin’s opponents by catching
them in all sorts of misdeeds.

But it isn’t just the Kremlin that values the Gabrelyanovs.

The public feeds on their coverage, too, because they are among the
few people in Russian media still able to break news even if it’s with
a strong establishment slant enabling them to generate the clicks and
the buzz that sterile state media can no longer muster.

Aram Gabrelyanov, who resembles a miniaturized, fleshier version of
James Gandolfini, can usually be found barking orders across the sleek
newsroom to his army of young journalists. Born to an Armenian builder
father, Gabrelyanov has a warm, southern sense of humor, and it’s hard
for him to go five minutes without whipping out an anecdote.

He first got the bug for tabloid journalism while at university in
Soviet times, where he tricked the KGB agent on campus into letting
him into the library where foreign publications were kept.

That exposure served him well when he moved to the provincial town of
Ulyanovsk in the late 1980s, where he rapidly moved up in the local
publishing world. He then relocated to the capital and, after a few
hit-and-miss years, made it big in 2001 with his national tabloid
Zhizn Life which now has a circulation of 1.6 million.

Today, News Media Holding earns $1.5 billion per year. In addition to
Life, they own Izvestia, once the official newspaper of the Soviet
government, as well as another tabloid and three websites. The younger
son and heir to the empire, 24-year-old Ashot, runs Lifenews.ru and
also a new TV station. There is no substantive division between the
holding’s publications, which freely feed one another information and
scoops that are then retailored for each audience. The elder son,
26-year-old Artem, directs their comic book line, with a host of
Russified superheroes that includes an Orthodox priest.

The Gabrelyanovs pay their staff extravagantly in some cases, $10,000
per month with the understanding that a large chunk of that should be
spent on payments to “agents,” or the people in law enforcement and
hospitals who can feed scoops. Gabrelyanov said he paid between
$10,000 and $30,000 for the shots of Snowden leaving the airport, and
Life journalists have won some of their biggest breaks by bribing
their way into hospitals to film Russian mega-stars on their
deathbeds.

Aram Gabrelyanov defends the “agent” system as the key to his empire’s
success: “We categorically won’t retreat from this system, it’s our
business.”

One former Life editor-in-chief even boasted about the tactics.

“Before us nobody had ever done anything as systematic, and paid them
for it. We spanned the entire city,” said Timur Marder, who started as
an intern in Ulyanovsk in 1995 and worked his way up the publication
ladder to lead Life in 2005 before quitting in 2009 over a personal
dispute.

“There were many times,” Marder said, “when our journalists arrived at
the scene before investigators, the police or the ambulance.”

For many of their scoops, the Gabrelyanovs’ publications have been
widely believed to have relied on tips from Russia’s security
apparatus and many of those officials frequently make a flattering
appearance on the pages of his papers.

That proximity to the security services also has been demonstrated by
their hardline stance on Russia’s opposition movement, to which they
take a hatchet much more aggressively than state-controlled media.
When protests erupted in Russia following manipulated parliamentary
elections in 2011, Lifenews published phone calls of opposition
politician Boris Nemtsov insulting his fellow activists and protesters
as “hamsters” and “scared penguins.” When questioned on the subject,
the Gabrelyanovs insisted that they hadn’t tapped Nemtsov’s phone but
had “received” the files suggesting they came from the security
services.

This go-for-the-jugular mentality has allowed Lifenews’s star to rise,
while viewership of state-controlled television is in steep decline.

Vasily Gatov, an analyst at Novosti Medialab, said state-media have
lost their capacity to cover major events. “They think too long about
whether we should cover this or not,” said Gatov. “He (Gabrelyanov)
doesn’t wait; he trusts his feelings and his judgment.”

Aram Gabrelyanov tries to portray News Media as an outsider
organization and insists that it has few high-up contacts and doesn’t
need them. “You can’t recruit the president of the United States,” he
said, “but you can probably recruit his cleaning lady.”

That quip clashes with the fact that Gabrelyanov has spent the last
few years cozying up to Kremlin insiders.

It was in the mid-2000s, as Putin was consolidating his power, that
Gabrelyanov jumped on the political bandwagon and established one
simple rule in his company: Don’t mess with Putin. “We do what we can
to make him a symbol that unites the country,” he said.

The loyalty was rewarded when, in 2008, Putin’s old friend Yuri
Kovalchuk dubbed “the Kremlin’s banker” bought just under half the
company for $80 million. The resulting cash flow allowed the
Gabrelyanovs to expand their empire, by opening the Lifenews website
and a host of other outlets in the same year.

Gabrelyanov insists he’s won the clout to be an independent voice.

“When some bureaucrat talks to me,” he said, “I have a question: Who
the hell are you and why should I listen to you?”

From: A. Papazian

Salami made from pure meat products is not so expensive – Armenian producer

October 19, 2013 | 14:03

YEREVAN. – The salami made from pure meat products is more expensive,
but not too expensive.

Armenia’s Bari Samaratsi [Good Samaritan] Company commercial Director
Vahe Harutyunyan told the aforesaid to news reporters.

He noted that when assessing the minimum value of pure meat salamis,
the ingredients do not necessarily require a high price.

`There are meat products whose ingredients require the use of other
products. But, nonetheless, these products are fully permitted by the
law,’ Harutyunyan stated.

He added that the salami prices in Armenia can range from 1,000-2,000 drams/kg.

`[But] if we use local meat, the product will be more expensive.

`We also have expensive salamis; dietary [ones], for example; it costs
3,000 drams/kg,’ Vahe Harutyunyan said.

To note, in line with the current exchange rate, USD 1 is equivalent
to approximately AMD 406.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: A. Papazian

Hayk Kotanjian’s statement delivered to Ambassadors of Russia, US and France

11:00 19/10/2013 » POLITICS

THE STATEMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION OF ARMENIA IN TERMS OF
THE OPEN LETTER OF ZORI BALAYAN TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN
FEDERATION MR. VLADIMIR PUTIN `THE PROBLEM OF KARABAKH IS THE PROBLEM
OF RUSSIA’

On October 18, 2013, on behalf of Chairman of Political Science
Association of Armenia Hayk Kotanjian the text of the Statement has
been delivered to Ambassador of the Russian Federation Ivan Volynkin,
US Ambassador H.E. John Heffern and French Ambassador H.E. Henri
Reynaud.

The Open Letter of the famous political writer, and USSR MP of
Perestroika times ` Zori Balayan to the Russian President Vladimir
Putin draw a wide public response in the RA and NKR. The
representatives from the public and political circles of the two
Armenian Republics expressed different, sometimes diametrically
opposite opinions and assessments of the statements and points in the
Open Letter. Political Science Association of Armenia considers it its
duty to make some observations.

Following the free and law-governed self-determination, the freedom of
thought and speech are proclaimed to be fundamental values in the
Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh. A similar achievement
is the respect of citizens’ rights and dignity that is guaranteed by
the Constitutions of the RA and NKR. Thus, the respect of Mr.
Balayan’s right to express his opinion and make assessments cannot be
doubted. Showing openness and tenacity when discussing political
problems with representatives of other states, including our notorious
opponents, we cannot manifest different attitude to our fellow
citizens, especially to those who were at the forefront of the
National Liberation Movement and brought a significant contribution to
the creation and formation of an independent Armenian state.

As a Member of the Parliament of the USSR Zori Balayan was one of the
leaders of the Armenian delegation to the USSR Supreme Soviet, the
National Council of Nagorno Ð?arabakh and the organizers of the Nagorno
Karabakh Government-in-exile (in Moscow).

It should be noted that the basis of a number of critical comments to
the letter is the `linear’ (simplified) perception of the nonlinear
nature of political processes. It seems that the more careful reading
of the letter would eliminate many questions that have appeared in the
course of the said dispute.

I would like also to pay attention to the political orientation of
Zori Balayan’s address. Behind the systemic political and historical
survey, a key theme of which is the non-repetition of tragic mistakes
in respect of the Armenian people, the concerns of the author stand
out for the perspectives of the Karabakh conflict’s just resolution
within the framework of the Minsk process, including the political and
legal, and territorial configuration of the independent Artsakh State.
You may disagree with some points and conclusions, but we cannot
ignore the author’s main idea that ensuring security and development
of the NKR within Artsakh’s historical borders has no alternative.

The letter’s author presents for the consideration of the Head of the
Russian state ` Co-chair of the Minsk group ` the problem of the
academically grounded evaluation of facts for the objective definition
of the frames of compromises, including the Armenian-populated
Nakhijevan Autonomous Soviet Republic that was subject to ethnic
cleansing during the Soviet period.

The letter of Zori Balayan aims to provide for the Head of the Russian
state a systemic presentation of the valid political history of
Transcaucasia in terms of scientifically verifiable facts bolstered
with sources recognized by the international scientific community.

The letter addressed to the head of the Russian state in some sense
includes also an appeal to the two other Co-chairs – the US and France
– expressing concern about the danger of the penetration into the
sphere of the assessment development and decision-making on the
Karabakh conflict of anti-scientific products of the systematic
distortion of the real history, lavishly paid by the hereditary
corrupt dictatorial regime of Azerbaijan.

Political Science Association of Armenia – taking into account the
importance and openness of the assessments and suggestions for the
Karabakh conflict resolution in the letter of Zori Balayan aimed at
the establishment of durable peace in the South Caucasus – has an
honor to send this Statement and the Open Letter to the Embassies of
the Minsk Group Co-Chair states in the Republic of Armenia for its
delivery to the Honorable President of the Russian Federation Mr.
Vladimir Putin, Honorable President of the United States Mr. Barack
Obama and Honorable President of the French Republic Mr. François
Hollande with a request to look through the assessments and
suggestions of the Open Letter’s author and take them into
consideration during the development of relevant decisions.

Hayk Kotanjian, Doctor of Political Science
Chairman, Political Science Association of Armenia

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

Careful reading would eliminate many disputed questions – Armenian
political analyst on Zori Balayan’s letter to Putin

10:17 ¢ 19.10.13

On October 18, 2013, on behalf of the Chairman of Political Science
Association of Armenia Hayk Kotanjian the text of the Statement has
been delivered to the Ambassador of the Russian Federation Ivan
Volinkin, US Ambassador H.E. John Heffern and the French Ambassador
H.E. Henri Reynaud.

The Open Letter of the famous political writer, and USSR MP of
Perestroika times – Zori Balayan to the Russian President Vladimir
Putin draw a wide public response in the RA and NKR. The
representatives from the public and political circles of the two
Armenian Republics expressed different, sometimes diametrically
opposite opinions and assessments of the statements and points in the
Open Letter. Political Science Association of Armenia considers it its
duty to make some observations.

Following the free and law-governed self-determination, the freedom of
thought and speech are proclaimed to be fundamental values in the
Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh. A similar achievement
is the respect of citizens’ rights and dignity that is guaranteed by
the Constitutions of the RA and NKR. Thus, the respect of Mr.
Balayan’s right to express his opinion and make assessments cannot be
doubted. Showing openness and tenacity when discussing political
problems with representatives of other states, including our notorious
opponents, we cannot manifest different attitude to our fellow
citizens, especially to those, who were at the forefront of the
National Liberation Movement and brought a significant contribution to
the creation and formation of an independent Armenian state.

As a Member of the Parliament of the USSR Zori Balayan was one of the
leaders of the Armenian delegation to the USSR Supreme Soviet, the
National Council of Nagorno Ð?arabakh and the organizers of the Nagorno
Karabakh Government-in-exile (in Moscow).

It should be noted, that the basis of a number of critical comments to
the letter is the `linear’ (simplified) perception of the nonlinear
nature of political processes. It seems that the more careful reading
of the letter would eliminate many questions that have appeared in the
course of the said dispute.

I would like also to pay attention to the political orientation of
Zori Balayan’s address. Behind the systemic political and historical
survey, a key theme of which is the non-repetition of tragic mistakes
in respect of the Armenian people, the concerns of the author stand
out for the perspectives of the Karabakh conflict’s just resolution
within the framework of the Minsk process, including the political and
legal, and territorial configuration of the independent Artsakh State.
You may disagree with some points and conclusions, but we cannot
ignore the author’s main idea that ensuring security and development
of the NKR within Artsakh’s historical borders has no alternative.

The letter’s author presents for the consideration of the Head of the
Russian state – Co-chair of the Minsk group – the problem of the
academically grounded evaluation of facts for the objective definition
of the frames of compromises, including the Armenian-populated
Nakhijevan Autonomous Soviet Republic that was subject to ethnic
cleansing during the Soviet period.

The letter of Zori Balayan aims to provide for the Head of the Russian
state a systemic presentation of the valid political history of
Transcaucasia in terms of scientifically verifiable facts bolstered
with sources recognized by the international scientific community.

The letter addressed to the head of the Russian state in some sense
includes also an appeal to the two other Co-chairs – the US and France
– expressing concern about the danger of the penetration into the
sphere of the assessment development and decision-making on the
Karabakh conflict of anti-scientific products of the systematic
distortion of the real history, lavishly paid by the hereditary
corrupt dictatorial regime of Azerbaijan.

Political Science Association of Armenia – taking into account the
importance and openness of the assessments and suggestions for the
Karabakh conflict resolution in the letter of Zori Balayan aimed at
the establishment of durable peace in the South Caucasus – has an
honor to send this Statement and the Open Letter to the Embassies of
the Minsk Group Co-Chair states in the Republic of Armenia for its
delivery to the Honorable President of the Russian Federation Mr.
Vladimir Putin, Honorable President of the United States Mr. Barack
Obama and Honorable President of the French Republic Mr. François
Hollande with a request to look through the assessments and
suggestions of the Open Letter’s author and take them into
consideration during the development of relevant decisions.

Hayk Kotanjian, Doctor of Political Science
Chairman, Political Science Association of Armenia

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: A. Papazian

EXPERT: ARMENIA IN NEED OF POWERFUL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN

YEREVAN, October 18. /ARKA/. Armenia needs to work out a serious
economic development project to resolve its problems, Vladimir
Lepekhin, the director of the Eurasian Economic Community Institute
and a member of the Eurasian Economic Integration Bureau of the
Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said Friday
in Novosti International Press Center in Yerevan.

“It should be a project of dynamic economic development, a
modernization project,” he said.

The expert said that the slowdown in economic growth in Armenia
against fast-growing neighboring economies disrupts the balance in
the South Caucasus region.

If Armenia has such a powerful modernization plan, he said, it would
make Russia’s assistance to its communications, atomic energy and
mining industries more effective.

Lepekhin said instead of asking Russian support to advance this or
that industry, or resume the operation of the Abkahzian railway,
Yerevan should get down to creating a real modernization project.

‘The current modus operandi of Yerevan is not effective, not because
of Russian leadership’s opposition but because of huge inertia,’
he said adding that neither Russian foreign ministry nor big capital
would do this without president Putin’s order.

In early September, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Russian
counterpart, Vladimir Putin, made a joint statement, according to
which Armenia has decided to join the Customs Union and to take part
in formation of the Eurasian Union in the future.

The announcement came as Armenia was poised to sign the Association
Agreement with the European Union aimed at making European Union’s
ties with Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova and Georgia closer. —0—-

– See more at:

From: A. Papazian